Prince George, B.C. – “A validation of every concern we brought to you back in September.”

That’s what CUPE local 3742 president Karen Wong says a letter by Fujitsu, the company responsible for MyEducationBC, has provided her and the clerical workers in her union.

The letter, written back on October 29, 2015 by Fujitsu executive vice president Alex Attal and only made public Tuesday by School District 57, acknowledges concerns with the new $95 million student information system.

“Recently, the incremental load on the system created by the addition of 236,213 students across 894 schools has caused performance issues,” he said. “These, in turn, have caused inconvenience, frustration and lost time for many users. We deeply regret this and sincerely apologize.”

Attal continued: “We acknowledge that more effort on our part is required to meet the standards of our contractual commitments and also provide users with an exceptional experience.”

Wong pounced on the admission and demanded action from the school board at last night’s monthly meeting.

“If someone doesn’t meet contractual demands there’s usually compensation. You paid overtime and that overtime should not be coming out of this district,” she said.

“Follow up on the contractual commitment or talk to the government. This is not the end of it.”

Board chair Tony Cable said he takes the issue “very seriously” considering all the overtime and extra work put in by staff but says the buck stops with the government on this issue and they aren’t “wiling to budge.”

“Basically it’s been brought up from a number of districts, through BCSTA (BC School Trustees Association) and there’s been no movement from the government.”

He adds it would be very difficult to estimate exactly how much extra dollars the district were forced to pay in overtime costs.

“I don’t think it’s even possible but it is substantial,” said Cable. “And the thing is, a lot of our secretaries do it out of the goodness of their heart and they do it and they don’t even tell anyone.”